Category Archives: Thoughts

Thoughts

Training Decisions

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One of my big commitments is trying to get in a class every month on some sort of martial skill. Mostly, that’s guns, because guns are fun, but I’m good with knives, hand-to-hand, medical, whatever. It is expensive, but they’re usually one day and local, so there’s not a lot of ancillary costs.

The big problem is often making the call about what class to go to. There are some months where I’ve got hard choices. Do I do the Green Ops practical pistol clinic, the FPF Training Minuteman Rifle class, or the PNTC PRS class?

In an attempt to solve that conundrum, I’ve got a list of priorities that I try to use to as an evaluation standard to determine what I should take. These are ordered in importance to me, but no priority will ever totally override the others. I am very interested in what my readership feels about these, so please leave comments if you agree/disagree!

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Thoughts

Real Dry-Fire Session

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Here’s me dry-firing. No cuts, except for the one where my old camera conked out at a 4gb file limit, and a touch of trimming at the beginning and end for where I was manipulating my camera. I am not saying this is good or whatever, but I am saying that this is how it looks when someone does the work. It is not always smooth or perfect, especially at first.

Ignore the Instagram-driven BS. If it looks awesome all the time, you’re not doing it right.

Thoughts

I need someone to explain .300 AAC to me; or, better calibers for your AR

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Every time I see someone ask about non-5.56 calibers on the AR-15 platform, there’s a legion of fanboys who start proclaiming that .300 AAC (aka, .300 BLK or Blackout or whatever) is the way to go. Let’s take a look at its capabilities:

  • Subsonic .300AAC? All the ballistics and energy of .45ACP. Somewhat better penetration due to bullet profile, but I don’t get the hype at all. We’ve spent literally decades declaring PCCs and SMGs dead, and now this is the hotness?
  • Supersonic .300AAC? Nearly indistinguishable from 7.62×39 in terms of ballistics, and if you’re OK with .308 bullets in a .311 bore, the bullet selection is the same.

Yes, .300AAC can be a .45 ACP and a 7.62×39 on demand. That’s the best cartridge design of the years 1911 and 1944, all in one gun. That’s not a compelling to me. But, OK… let’s say that is compelling to you. I can use my imagination!

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Thoughts

In Praise of Going Light-Weight

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too heavy ar
The classical example from the Internet of what not to do.

I am going to lead off with a rather controversial statement, but I think it’s one I can justify: when choosing and configuring a long gun for any specific role that involves dynamic movement, there are four top considerations: reliability, functionality, weight, and cost. I frequently see people ignoring weight, and it drives me crazy.

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Thoughts

2018 in Review, and Plans for 2019

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shooting.jpg

I was reading the Civilian Gunfighter blog recently – it’s fantastic – and they had a really great series of posts up on there looking back at 2018 and discussing their plans for 2019. Unlike them, I don’t have a lot of really cool stuff to talk about or have much wisdom to share, but I think it might be informative – and hopefully inspirational – for people to understand what happened with me starting in April.

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Thoughts, Training

Being a good student – and how instructors can help.

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When I was listening to the Primary and Secondary podcast, there was a really good discussion of “how to be a good student” from the perspective of the trainers, along with an accompanying discussion on the forum. I’ve done a lot of training lately, and I thought I’d do my own take on it. To me, there’s two big categories here: prep before class, and what you do at class.

Prep before class has a few subcategories:

  • Mental
  • Supplies for physical needs
  • Clothing
  • “Gear”
  • Gun-related stuff

But what you do at class, and even after class, is important, too… and instructors, that’s you, too.

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Thoughts

Thoughts on Doing Shotguns Wrong

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nightstick.png
Exhibit 1 in building a shotgun wrong

Something I’ve been mulling over for the past week or so were Tim Chandler’s comments on shotgun selection at the class I took with him. The advice he gave about avoiding detachable box mags seemed hard to understand to me at the time. Like, I get that you need a reliable gun, but people run guns with mags all the time for defense, so it had to be more than that. I think I now see where he’s coming from… and I think it stems from not really understanding that, much like a rifle, expecting one shotgun to do it all is not reasonable or viable.

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